Fears That Can Oppose Business Growth

The smartest businessman on earth has fears. It's human nature. Fears are pre-programmed into our psyche to protect us from getting hurt. It manifests itself especially in people who do not take risks in life. It keeps us frozen in one frame in the timeline of our lives where we never venture "outside of the box" to accomplish things. This is about to change as I outline a list of the seven common fears that hinder business people's progress from time to time. This list was created by author/speaker/business coachCJ Hayden.
The seven fears she outlined were;

Fear of Rejection
Fear of Ridicule
Fear of Embarassment
Fear of the Unknown
Fear of Failure
Fear Success
Fear of Disapproval

Fear of Rejection is quite common to say the least. You can have a nice product or service to share with prospects but this is easily overshadowed by the fear of rejection. "Oh my gosh, suppose they don't like my product" or "What if he doesn't like this? What if what if what if?" This can happen to anyone.
Fear of Ridicule is evident where you may experience what's known as the "impostor syndrome" where you're scared that someone might look at you and ask,"Does he/she belong here?"
Fear of Embarassment usually surfaces just before a public speaking event. Your mind may be telling you,"Suppose I make a mistake or suppose I forget something important in the speech" and the list goes on.
Fear of the Unknown is extremely widespread not only in business but in our everyday lives. Most people are afraid to get involved in "new" things. They are somewhat unfamiliar to them and the result can be sketchy. It reminds me of a post I made few weeks ago outlining why "known hells are prefferred to unknown heavens".
Fear of Failure is common as well. Some people think that life is about winning on the first try. What many people do not realise is that most success stories were not written only in the positive. Failure is usually a normal part of success.There's a great article at businessweek's website dated June 22, 2005. Or you can do a search for Nicholas Hall.
Fear of Success is evident when we don't think that we deserve the "winnings" that can be ours, especially if we are accustomed to a certain standard of living that can be greatly improved if we succeed in our endeavours. Our state of conciousness does not have the capacity to "see" the success and we disassociate it from ourselves and sabotage our own success. Of course I have a link to help in that arena as well.
Fear of Disapproval is illustrated in a case where we wonder,"Oh what will Grandma think?" "What will my coworkers say if I do this?"
Every fear is just an ANT. Automatic Negative Thought. We all have ANTS at some point in our lives. Dealing with them is the real issue. ANTS help us to sabotage our own success and we hardly ever notice when this happens. What we must understand is that fears can be dealt with very successfully with the appropriate training. The number one mistake made is dealing with fears is denying that they exist. NEVER LIE TO YOURSELF. You need to make fear your best friend if you wish to deal with it. Admit that you have it and face it head on. Overcoming of fears is not my specialty so I won't try to go too deeply into it. The above link takes you directly to a "specialist" in that area.
Remember: Courage is not the absense of fear. It is taking action in the presence of fear.
Thanks for reading.